


Mind Your Manners

by TheWhiteLily



Series: Original Poetry [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-18 22:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13109589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWhiteLily/pseuds/TheWhiteLily
Summary: The anxiety of social niceties.





	Mind Your Manners

**Author's Note:**

> For fan_flashworks 'Rude'

Please or thank you  
Ps or Qs  
Excuse me, pardon  
Which to use?  
  
Should I walk on  
Or hold the gate?  
Did I make him run?  
Or is he late?  
  
I told her no  
Was that okay?  
Does she even  
Care much what I say?  
  
I’m overthinking.  
Yes. I am.  
My mind spins on  
Dear sir (or ma’am?)  
  
I’d never aim  
To give offence.  
Empathic wounds  
Breed self-defence  
  
Flagellation:   
Years have passed  
But wounds live on  
The sting steadfast  
  
And in my mind  
Builds up the stress  
So cautious  
Not to cause distress!  
  
(I told her no  
She said okay  
And only later  
Brewed dismay  
  
It’s not my fault  
I didn’t know  
I had no way  
To see her woe  
  
It was _my_ big day  
Not hers, not ours  
She had no right  
To turn it sour  
  
She could have said  
I would have heard  
But she didn’t  
And her hurt, it _burned_  
  
She had no right  
To say all that  
Not six months  
Afterwards of fact  
  
It’s all too late  
To change it now  
The words I trusted  
Disavowed  
  
And friendly faces  
Happy phrases  
A second chance  
To earn her praises  
  
Doesn’t fill  
That gaping void  
My childlike faith  
Blithely destroyed)  
  
Is it please? Or thank you?  
I don’t know  
I can’t be sure  
My mind’s so slow  
  
It’s all wound up  
Obsessing here  
On tiny details  
Far from clear  
  
The gate swings shut  
Too fast to catch  
Unless I wait  
And hold the latch  
  
That awkward pause  
Is it too far?  
Is it worse to wait?  
While tight nerves scar?  
  
It doesn’t matter  
No wrong or right  
No deeper meaning  
To _this_ plight  
  
It’s just a gate  
A moment’s pause  
Held back; swung shut  
No broken laws  
  
But it’s hard to trust  
What’s in my heart  
When once one word  
Tore all apart  
 


End file.
